Type of site | Public service portal and institutional information |
|---|---|
| Owner | European Union |
| Created by | European Commission |
| URL | europa |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | February 1995 |
| Current status | online |
Europa is the official web portal of the European Union (EU), providing information on how the EU works, related news, events, publications and links to websites of institutions, agencies and other bodies. .europa.eu is also used as a common second level domain for the websites of the EU's bodies, for instance iss.europa.eu is the address of the Institute for Security Studies.
Europa was first published in February 1995 at the G7 ministerial meeting on information society in Brussels. Originally designed for that specific event, the portal expanded rapidly and the European Commission decided to develop it into a general information resource, specialising in the work and domain of the EU's bodies.
Laws and documents of major public interest are published in all 24 official EU languages. Documents that are not legally binding are usually published in the EU's institutional working languages; English, French and German.
